Modular Environment

HTivey

I'm modelling a modular environment for one of my assignments at uni
The concept is an abandoned apartment overlooking a city, with the main focal point being the interior of the building.

Here are some screenshots of my interior environment so far, but without the normal maps or any kind of rendering. The normals are done for most objects I want to stand out (eg. wall and floor textures).

I want to make any improvements ASAP before I go any further with it in UDK. This is my first try at a modular environment, and I need you guys to basically tear it apart for me if I'm going to get any better a this

Any feedback would be awesome ^_^

EDIT: CAn also be viewed here: htivey.deviantart.com/gallery/?catpath=scraps#/d5lhecl

waldo

It is quite hard to read the environment. Sketch out the environment on a paper top down first and try to find what should be your focus, what is the most interesting area of the environment.

Also your textures are really low resolution, even if you are aiming for mobile this is really low resolution. The bookshelves are really thick, the chairs are blocky. When you design a new prop try to find some referance first, google images is perfect.

Also try to get some shadows or ambient occlusion into the scene. So increase the texture quality, make the scene easier to read with a better focus on whats the cool part and improve lightning and shadows and this will end up looking great.

HTivey

Thank you very much I'll give it a go

JoshWilkinson

^all good advice from waldo, heed that. You mention your end goal is UDK? I'd start compiling everything in UDK now. I never use Maya's lighting if something's going to be lit in-engine, because why spend the time to light something twice, you know? But waldo's totally right about the shadows and occlusion. Right now I don't see any shadows and it makes everything pretty flat

HTivey

I've started putting things into UDK already, but I'm just re-doing and refining my chairs and bookshelves

HTivey

Here's a screenshot of what I have imported into UDK so far; I've used afternoon lighting. I haven't applied any normals or manual lightmaps yet.

ayoub44

i think you sould realy make that windows cast some shadows , it will give some nice result
and also scale down your brick on the wall because it's breaking the scale of the image .
keep it up

Jet_Pilot

Do you have any reference? The wall's texture is way out of scale, and they aren't casting shadows.

Try and work on your pixel density. Try and set a density of like 512 or 1024 px per 1-2 meters. This will help everything "fit" a little better. For example you have those newspapers on the wood floor, but the news papers have a MUCH higher res than the floor. so UP the res of the floor.

Also.. can you explain how this is a modular env?

HTivey

Thanks guys I've got most of it in UDK now and took everything into account, I'll post an update either later tonight or in the morning. Its a modular environment because a lot of the assets are repeated as well as the buildings I'm putting outside the window.

I'm going to try a seamless texture effect on the floor and walls to alter the resolution and make those modular too.

I've made new chairs but I my tablet crapped out on me so I'll have to borrow one ;_; I'm looking at a dust particle system to add to it aswell. I'll research window effects later on

JoshWilkinson

I've had issues with funky lighting as well from stuff like this. Your walls are just planes, right? And your material is single sided, so you can see into the space from the outside, right? If you check the box "two-sided material" then that should help you out. The other thing is you need lightmaps.

HTivey

UPDATE! Added everything except for the chairs. Added smoke and dust particle systems and a point light. Not added lightmaps or normals yet. Raised some floorboards. Haven't scaled down the wall texture yet

North

texel density is all over the place. scale is all over the place.

Jet_Pilot

Re-using 3-4 props does not make your scene modular. This is modular
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-t2OvBekp7JQ/T4rhBBQC30I/AAAAAAAAAjI/0_pranG3Gsw/s1600/GOW3_mesh06_KevinJohnstone.jpg

You really need some reference and stick to it. Your scene composition, lighting, and under developed skills are all over the place. Find an image and make that.

Here are some quick ones that match what your making... somewhat. Make what you see first.

http://wandel.ca/homepage/abandoned_house_downstairs.jpg
http://leonardharman.com/FILM/IMAGES/abandoned-house.jpg
http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs70/i/2010/246/7/7/abandoned_house_hdr_workshop_by_robkit-d2xxrft.jpg
http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/81855/81855,1224094161,5/stock-photo-inside-abandoned-house-wall-with-broken-window-shot-in-west-coast-nature-reserve-near-langebaan-18988195.jpg
http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs30/f/2008/131/2/3/Holton_Abandoned_House_15_by_Falln_Stock.jpg
http://pangwei.deviantart.com/art/Abandoned-House-178265233

HTivey

I'm limited to 15000 triangles and 1024x1024 pixels for the textures. I have to hand this in on Friday so I'll try my best to get everything in before then.

BUT

I'll definitely be resubmitting this with all the improvements made by April. I'll keep you posted as I develop this more

HTivey

Updaaate! This is a screenshot of the scene in Maya so far.

It looks less like a piece of crap now

Made the room smaller and piles eeeverything in to make it look more cluttered. Also added planks from the hole in the ceiling. I'm going to plop it all into UDK in the morning after some major snoozing.

HTivey

Anew UDK screenshot with everything imported. Now to do the lightmaps and normals...

djoexe

your lighting setup is quite boring right now...and I do not see any main focus point. It's just a pile of stuff.

Topcross

I agree with djoexe. Very hard to read the image as there is no main focus. Try adding a main focus and maybe remove some of the red, red will almost always draw the attention so you can use this to your advantage to guide the viewer's eye.

Also there seems to be some stretching in the texture of the piece of furniture to the right (in the first image of your last post).

JoshWilkinson

As everybody has mentioned, you don't really have a focal light source. The volumetric lighting is at the top of your latest render is kind of interesting, but now that default UDK lighting mode includes that, you aren't really showing off your skills as an artist. As one of my professors once told me, "You're relying on lighting tricks more than lighting the scene.

Are these areas UV'd? It looks like you did a planar map on the front faces and neglected everything else. You could get away with overlapping thoes shells, especially if they're conealed with books. But right now is just a glaring oversight.


Why am I not seeing shadows or occlusion all over these areas? That would really help the flatness of your scene.

These colors are borderline painful. Because they're the only areas with any sort of real color, they stand out, and because they're complimentary colors, my eye is dancing all over the place and doesn't really have a place to rest. As djoexe and topcross have recommended, you need a focal point. I'd desaturate these and bring focus to something through the lighting.


Now don't let me discourage you. It was smart to do a small scene so you don't end up biting off more than your can chew. And it's great that you brought this into UDK, that shows you know how to import, work on a grid and work with scale. So just keep at it, bud!

HTivey

Thanks peeps I'm not discouraged at all; if anything, its really helping me get better at this

HTivey

And by the way.. I've got a week's extension on this so I've got until next Friday.... keep the feedback coming!

Scruples

You have plenty of feedback, best if you apply the criticisms and post an update before asking for more.

C

Your texture of your seat is also way to much saturated. I think when he is standing in open air, the sun would desaturate the material, it attracts the attention, but a little bit to much

HTivey

Newly UV mapped and textured bookcase... massive improvement on the last one..

HTivey

aaand we have a better chair..
I've got a trial version of Mudbox to put my couch in to sculpt it out and make it less blocky.

HTivey

New couch design, now to tear it up... mehehe >:3

Fingus

Very happy too see you taking criticism so well, keep at it!

I wonder about those dark spots on the couch. Are they in the texture or do they come from the shading in Maya?

HTivey

It's just the shading in Maya, its a pretty low res screenshot. It'll look a lot better once I get it lightmapped and into UDK

ivanzu

looking better,there is student version of mudbox available for free.

HTivey

I've got it, but it doesn't seem to be working I can access it through the university though so I can have a whirl on it when I'm there in a couple of days

JoshWilkinson

Loving the new assets. They all look like they have a cohesive style, which is huge, and the new direction for the couches are way less distracting. Very nice

HTivey

everything's in UDK.... still looking flat though

Shmaba

Did a quick paintover messing with values a bit to solve the issue of the flatness


Mostly it's working with the lighting to get the correct brightness. It should be brighter by the window and darker everywhere else, but right now the lighting everywhere is sort of the same value. Also try get some of the contact shadows on some of those chairs and wood planks on the couch.

Additionally, later on I think some light shafts coming in will help with the mood. It looks like the air would be really dusty and so would call for that.

Another note is all the perspective lines in this screenshot are going right out the window which leads my eye out there to those blocky untextured buildings. Since you want the interior to be the focus I suggest finding a way to keep our focus on something important inside the apartment and away from those buildings.

angieb1970

You are making progress and I like the way you are persevering. Make sure you take the detail of the feedback on board as it will help you learn a lot. Remember that the brief requires a modular scene so the focus should be creating a collection of structures out of a selection of meshes that you build and texture, that can be used in a variety of combinations.

HTivey

Here's some screenshots of some light shafts I've been playing with. How can I get the shadows cast from the chair and the planks of wood to stay there? When I deselect it, they disappear again (you can see the difference in the two screenshots).

Also, how can I get the shadows to contrast more? There seems to be plenty of light, but not enough shadow.

I was also thinking of having a focal point within the room in the form of an overflowing ash tray? Maybe on the couch. It should take away the focus from those rather dodgy buildings.

djoexe

nice progress, this scene would be even nicer if you fake some color bleedind from your red curtain. Your global illumination looks weak... The bricks wall is barely noticable due to this, Adding some bloom too will enhance the overall feel and atmosphere.

HTivey

Managed to play with the shadows... here's some more lighting results

HTivey

djoexe... thanks! I was thinking of making my curtains slightly translucent, I'll give it a go in the morning

HTivey

playing with coloured lighting

HTivey

another update.... played with the lightshafts some more and got some nice shadows going

S_ource

I suggest adding more round shapes everything is so blocky now. Anyhow good progress.

HTivey

back with some form of focal point for the environment!

wirrexx

Great progress mate, S_ource said something good. trying beveling some edges, make them rounder. there are no perfect edges in the real world (unless it's like the top of a katana). you could always try to go Hi-poly and then bake down to fake some "rounder" edges. take the Sofa for example. It looks more like a plastic rectangular thingy. IT needs the "soft Cussain" effect. Use alot of refrences, it'll help you.

Keep the hard work going. We want to see more progress!

waldo

Try to add some kind of ambient light, the shadows are really dark and it would probably look better if they were a little lighter. Try something like a blueisch ambient light..

Also the wall texture is terribly stretched and in the wrong scale..

It is starting to look a lot better than the first post you did, keep working on it

ivanzu

Looking better,show us some wires.

HTivey

building things... I'm going to have to resubmit this with more softened edges because I don't have much time deadline's tomorrow. I'm going to try the ambient light soon when I've fixed the lightmaps

HTivey

Added a blueish glow to the shadows and changed the sky. This is the environment with the lighting and paths built.

wirrexx

i prefered it more liten then now. It's to dark, the lighter one (before building the lights) have more contrast and feels so cold and a place i dont want to be at.

the latter one seems to cosy and nice. quite the place !:P

HTivey

This is my hand in for now... I'll work on it some more in a few weeks time

Philistyne

Your scene has improved massively from the first version. You have demonstrated a skill that many new artists lack, the ability to take advice. Good work keep at it.

m1neh

Well done, much better than your start, but I preferred it with brighter lights above,